TheWalletInspector

walletinspector what do you mean the US judges love volume?

They tend to score rounds to fighter who is throwing/landing more rather than the fighter landing the better shots. Paul Williams has benefited from this a lot in his career.

That payday has been there for the last 2 years. It isn't getting any bigger.

I don't buy into any of this 'fix' stuff. Kellerman was spot on when he said that US judges love volume.

Marquez beat Pacquaio 3 times.

Ovill McKenzie didn't mess around in his commonwealth title fight just now. All over in 15 seconds.

I like Bute, despite his run of terrible opposition. I'd back him to beat all 168lb'er soutside of Ward, and I'm starting to think he could beat Ward as well. I don't think Andre would like those crafty uppercuts he throws.

True legend. RIP Smoke.

That guy is an amazing troll.

Floyd? Yeah, he is. :winkold:

George Groves... wow.

yeah your rite I was confusing the fight with guerrero with the thunder left hand that put down marquez.

ive said all along that katsidis should do him, I think he will be able to sucker burns into his type of fight and if he does I can only see one outcome

did you see the fight with jason booth and scott quigg the other week?

Agreed.

Yeah I did. A real changing of the guard fight with Booth out and Quigg in. I expected Quigg to win but I was shocked by just how dominant he was. A fight with Frampton somewhere down the line is a really interesting one. Who do you like in that matchup?

I dont know to be honest because as much as I think DeGale is overated I think that Groves leaves a lot to be desired as well.

He put on a really good fight against DeGale and had it tactically spot on but I dont think his level is much higher than that so they need to be careful who they put him in with to keep him from losing or looking very average

cant wait for the Burns vs Katsidis fight though, always rated Katsidis purely because he is a warrior and only knows one way of fighting, I would love to see him win on satday and I think he will if he can drag burns into a war.

even though Marquez absolutely destroyed him in his last fight the ref didn't help Katsidis at all, if I remember correctly he deducted two points for two (pretty weak) low blows without giving any previous warnings about them so Katsidis had to change his game plan again which was a shame as it was the first time he looked like he was getting any where then Marquez blatently touched the canvas with his glove after taking a punch and the ref didnt give it as a knockdown, Dont get me wrong Katsidis was losing from the first round but I hate it when ref's make it even more one sided than it had to be

I agree with you on Groves. The gap between the likes of himself and Degale, and the elite of that division is enormous, but fortunately for them they've got a bit of time on their side. The thing that separated him from DeGale on the night was mainly just his superior preperation. Had DeGale been trained by the Dark Lord I think that he would have won. He needs to get away from Jim McDonnell ASAP.

You're thinking of the Guerrero fight mate. Yeah the ref Russell Mora (same ref who allowed Mares to repeatably smash Agbeko in the bollocks recently) deducted points for low blows with no warnings and then after that started warning him for body shots. This came when the tide looked like it might be turning but he couldn't because he was unable to hit the body without being DQ'd. He should have definitely had a knockdown to his name in the 2nd as well when Guerrero touched down. I do wonder how Burns will cope if caught by a monstrous left hook like that one or the one that put Marquez down and onto queer street.

I was thinking that Burns might be able to do it earlier in the week but after rewatching his fight with Martinez I don't think he will. I see Katsidis getting to him a little bit too easily and pushing him back. Once he's pushed back he's going to be in real trouble and will probably get stopped at some point.

yup i'll be watching friday nights stuff live but ive gotta go round to my sisters on saturday so I will haveto catch up on that when I get back a few hours after it starts and i'll be watching sundays providing its on sky sports 1

isnt groves vs smith on saturday on boxnation as well?

Yeah, Groves vs Smith is the chief support. I think that's quite clever matchmaking by Warren from a DeGale point of view. It's a little bit lose-lose for Groves in that even if he stops Smith he's only repeating DeGale's feat.

The Angulo card is on Sky Sports 4 unfortunately.

Fantastic weekend of Boxing coming up.

Friday: Denis Lebedev vs James Toney on Boxnation.

Saturday: Ricky Burns vs Michael Katsidis followed by Lucian Bute vs Glen Johnson on Boxnation.

Sunday: Delayed coverage of Alfredo Angulo vs James Kirkland on Sky.

Sounds like the WBC have overruled the referees decision and changed the Hopkins - Dawson result to a technical draw.

For those who were doubting the extent of Hopkins injury it ends up that he dislocated his shoulder.

Means that B HOP has got the bel back, no news of the WBC ordering a re-match or anything

Rightly so as well. Hopefully the Commission follow suit at their next meeting. I'm not sure the rematch will happen purely because of a lack of public demand.

The latest episode of How To Make It In America was ace.... Lake Bell has a cracking pair.

Only found out about this the other day and worked my way through it already. Good stuff.

I've never agreed with this notion of 'having to take the belt from the champion'. The only advantage of being the champion once you get inside the ring is you get to keep your belt if you draw.

I had it to Bellew by 1. Cracking fight.

It would be brilliant if

wins Prizefighter tonight.

It wasn't to be.

Don Broadhurst beat him on points in the opener.

Bad news.

Allegations of deal to fix 2012 Olympic boxing medals

BBC Newsnight has uncovered evidence of secret payments of millions of dollars from Azerbaijan to international boxing organisation World Series Boxing (WSB).

Whistleblowers say that WSB's chief claimed the money was in return for a guarantee that Azerbaijani fighters would win two boxing gold medals at the London 2012 Olympics.

The boxing organiser at the Olympics, AIBA, admits an Azeri national paid $9m (£5.9m) to one of their competitions.

But they deny any deal to fix medals.

Lawyers for the International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA) told the BBC that any such allegation was "preposterous and utterly untrue".

That view was backed by AIBA President Dr Ching-Kuo Wu, who told Newsnight that the claims were "totally untrue and ludicrous", adding that "WSB is conducted in a totally transparent way".

However, he said that AIBA had a zero tolerance policy on corruption and that he would conduct an immediate investigation into the allegations.

Whistleblowers say a senior WSB member said gold medals had been promised

The AIBA is the international governing body for the sport of boxing recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). World Series Boxing, a franchised league of professional boxing, is one of its initiatives.

Whistleblowers from inside boxing approached Newsnight with allegations about the Chief Operating Officer of the AIBA's World Series Boxing (WSB), Ivan Khodabakhsh.

WSB had run into financial difficulties in America and was in need of funding.

'Medals being sold'

The insiders said Mr Khodabakhsh told them that a secret deal had been done to secure funding from Azerbaijan in return for manipulation of the Olympic boxing tournament to guarantee gold medals for Azerbaijani fighters.

Continue reading the main story

“

Start Quote

I deny that I have offered anyone two gold medals or have any understanding that anybody else has offered two gold medals to Azerbaijan”

Ivan Khodabakhsh

Chief Operating Officer of the AIBA's World Series Boxing (WSB)

AIBA and WSB response

One insider told Newsnight: "Ivan boasted to a few of us that there was no need to worry about World Series Boxing having the coin to pay its bills. As long as the Azeris got their medals, WSB would have the cash."

Another said that Mr Khodabakhsh came in and said: "We are safe now - Azerbaijan came in - we have to give them medals for that."

"He was talking about gold medals in London in return for millions of dollars of secret payments," the insider added. "Medals are being sold so blatantly it's amazing."

But Mr Khodabakhsh told Newsnight that claims that there was any deal with Azerbaijan were "an absolute lie".

"I deny that I have offered anyone two gold medals or have any understanding that anybody else has offered two gold medals to Azerbaijan," he added.

AIBA has previously claimed that the money for WSB America came from a private Swiss company, but documents obtained by Newsnight show communications between Mr Khodabakhsh, AIBA executive director Ho Kim and Azerbaijan's Minister for Emergency Situations Kamaladdin Heydarov about an investment agreement for a $10m loan.

These include an e-mail from Mr Khodabakhsh to the ministry in Azerbaijan with the following request: "Please transfer the investment money soonest possible to the WSB America account."

'Go-between'

Newsnight interviewed Mr Khodabakhsh earlier this month in Switzerland, where WSB have offices, and asked him about the source of the money.

"The money for WSB America came from an investment company here based in Switzerland," he said.

Can you fix an Olympic boxing match?

However, lawyers for AIBA and WSB, have now confirmed that although the money was paid through a Swiss company it actually came from Azerbaijan. But they deny that it was from the government there.

They say that the government minister, Mr Heydarov, introduced a private Azerbaijani investor to WSB and that the minister and his assistant acted as the interface between the two since the investor did not speak good English.

Newsnight tried to contact Mr Heydarov via his office, but has received no response.

To date the anonymous investor has contributed $9m to WSB America.

Sporting events promoter Barry Hearn was asked to look at the economics of WSB when it was first mooted in 2009 and came to the conclusion that it could not make money.

He told Newsnight he was surprised that any investor would think that it offered the opportunity for high returns:

"If an investor comes into this scheme with $10m I can only think he's arrived from another planet".

There have been repeated allegations of corruption in Olympic boxing competitions.

The legendary boxing commentator Jim Neilly told Newsnight "There have been enough incidences down the years to suggest there has been collusion".

Speaking to Newsnight, AIBA President Dr Wu said his organisation had spent the last four years "cleaning the house of boxing" and that any corruption or manipulation within the sport was not tolerated.

Watch Newsnight's full report on Thursday 22 September 2011 at 22:30 BST on BBC Two, then afterwards on the BBC iPlayer and Newsnight website.

Hmmm i don't know whether i want to play £10 a month while already paying for Sky Sports although the content sounds decent, how many good fights does Warren have? Im quite interested what sky do.

It's not just Warren's fights. It's Sauerland shows, Golden Boy shows, Amateurs, possibly Top Rank shows, some MMA, Bunce Hour, A daily news show, and a load of archive footage to fill the gaps. For less than £2.50 a week I'm happy to pay for it personally.

Here's the schedule at the moment. I think everything on there is going to be free to view.

Frank's said that he's going to honour his contract with Sky until next July but I'm not sure how that's going to work. Hopefully Sky just spread his dates between Matchroom, Hatton, Maloney etc when the new contracts come in.

Big announcement by Warren today about his new channel "BoxNation".

After days of Tweets, leaks and guesswork over the future of BoxNation, a Sky TV channel that was launched in the summer and currently shows reruns of Frank Warren-promoted bouts, BoxingScene.com can reveal the details of channel 456’s fall output, subscription cost and the full scope of their commitment to boxing.

Warren, Boxing Channel Media and Zoom Communications are behind the venture; it will show its first live bill on September 30th when Liam Walsh defends his Commonwealth super-featherweight title against Paul Appleby at London’s York Hall.

"This is what all boxing fans have been waiting for - a dedicated channel, 100% percent committed to showing the best fights from around the world,” declared Warren. “It’s a big challenge in my career, but I’m really excited by BoxNation and it takes me back to my early years when I was at ITV doing a show a week.”

His sons, Francis and George, are at the helm of Queensberry Promotions; they have put together the Walsh-Appleby bill. “We are very proud that the first ever live show on BoxNation will be from Queensberry Promotions,” stated Francis. “We are looking forward to a long standing relationship with BoxNation."

Their will be two live promotions each week featuring action from the UK and abroad, amateur tournaments will also be a staple of their content, starting with the World Amateur Championships and the Royal Albert Hall Cup, Steve Bunce’s anarchic magazine show, Buncey’s Boxing Hour, will also return to our screens, with some episodes broadcast from London’s Planet Hollywood venue, there are to be daily news updates and archive fights featuring Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson and Sugar Ray Leonard as well as reruns of other contests. There will also be a commitment to the MMA here in the UK and abroad.

Warren has joined forced with Sauerland Promotions for a three-year deal that includes the WBO 168lb title battle between Robert Stieglitz and Mikkel Kessler on November 5th plus other bouts from the continent.

Bunce will be joined by boxing regulars Jim Rosenthal, the face and voice of ITV’s Big Fight Live for many years, Paul Dempsey, Sky’s former boxing anchorman, and experienced journalist John Rawling.

Free-to-air for the first few months, the channel will then switch to a subscription, £10 per month, format rather than the pay-per-event model that some had suspected would be implemented.

September’s Walsh-Appleby fight will be followed by an amateur showdown between the UK Combined Services and US Armed Services on October 7th, the show comes from the Royal Albert Hall, before heading to the Liverpool ECHO Arena on October 15th for Nathan Cleverly WBO light-heavyweight title defence against Tony Bellew, a bill that will be topped by a late night trip to Los Angeles for the WBC 175lb showdown between Bernard Hopkins and Chad Dawson.

Rob Norton headlines the following week, defending his British cruiserweight title at the York Hall, Norton’s defence will be packaged with a live broadcast of the mooted cruiserweight unification bout between WBC boss Marco Huck and WBO titlist Krzysztof Wlodarczyk. Frankie Gavin closes out the month, taking on WBO number four ranked contender Diego Gabriel Chaves in a WBO Inter-Continental title defence on October 28th.

November kicks off with Ricky Burns and Michael Katsidis looking horns for the Interim WBO lightweight title, the clash comes live from Wembley on Saturday November 5th and is supported by George Groves’ British super-middleweight title defence against former holder Paul Smith and Ryan Walsh’s first title shot, a meeting with Liam Richard for the vacant English super-bantamweight belt.

Once the dust settles on that one, the channel will switch to Denmark for the aforementioned Stieglitz-Kessler clash. Kessler is seeking to get back amongst the titles after a mixed Super Six tournament that saw the Dane lose to Andre Ward before bouncing back with a win over Carl Froch.

November 18th features the return of newly minted British and Commonwealth featherweight holder Lee Selby. The Welshman looked top drawer in his shocking victory over the highly regarded Stephen Smith at Liverpool’s Olympia on Saturday night, he takes on Scotland’s tough, uncompromising John Simpson, the York Hall once again the venue.

Richard Brooke will chair BoxNation; Simon Green, their CEO, has two decades of experience in boxing and believes that the channel will help develop British talent as well as delivering international fights; Richard Schaefer, Golden Boy CEO, is also onboard.

“We are very pleased to start working with BoxNation and bring some of the compelling boxing content to the British Fight Fans,” stated Schaefer. “The first one being the historic showdown of Bernard Hopkins against Chad Dawson. This fight illustrates the commitment BoxNation has to boxing.”

The final word goes to ITV legend and fan favorite Jim Rosenthal. “This a truly exciting new venture and I’m delighted that I’ll be involved with BoxNation,” enthused Jim. “Not only am I passionate about presenting at boxing events, but I’m also a big fan of the sport and I think this is great news for boxing fans everywhere.”

Forum reaction to the news has been mixed, with some declaring that they will not pay for the channel despite an absence of the full launch and schedule details. Many British fans, this writer included, shell out for ESPN and Premier Sports, bemoaned the loss of Bunce and Setanta a couple of years ago and have asked for a dedicated boxing channel. News of Warren’s venture has been greeted with one or two groans, which is strange considering the often-expressed need for further TV commitment to the sport.

At £10 a month the subscription fee is not a back breaker. There looks to be a lot of boxing on BoxNation if the early pace is maintained and with one or two declaring in the past that Setanta was worth the money purely for Buncey alone it makes one wonder if the quibbles over BoxNation relate directly to the previously ‘through a glass darkly’ description of what is on offer or are directed towards Warren himself. In the final analysis, the channel will live and die on its commitment to the sport, with punters deciding if the amount of shows and features justifies the monthly commitment.

Certainly, it looks to be better value than PPV, has greater scope than Premier Sports and ESPN as well as catering to the need for both UK and International bills, with those who do subscribe likely to enjoy a number of boxing marathons over the coming season. May we live in interesting times.

Link

Sounds pretty good for us Boxing fans to me.

Ortiz is a great opponent for Mayweather.

Little defence, no jab. It wouldn't surprise me if he bottles it again after taking some punishment.

Disgraceful robbery in the Sai vs Cox fight there.

We're as bad as the Germans.

Anyone watching the McDonnell-Hall fight? Cracker so far.

I was. Great way to start off the new season of Boxing. I'm not sure about the Sky pundit's comments about McDonnell moving on to world level. He's not ready for that IMO, and being in arguably the strongest division in world boxing isn't going to help.

I'm looking forward to the Zaveck-Berto card later. Especially, seeing Gary Russell Jr fighting again. He looks like he may well be the 'next big thing'.

I'm not one to shout "corrupt" usually, but **** me the refereeing in the Showtime Bantamweight Final tonight was absolute bollocks. Russell Mora should never referee another fight.

Sky are moving away from PPV boxing. Interesting, but I'd stick money on any huge name fights in future still being on it. If Mayweather Pacquiao does ever get made there's no doubt that it'll be on PPV.

I agree. The main reason for this being that there aren't any PPV fighters out there at the moment. I don't think Sky have suddenly cranked up their quality control.

One of the main men losing out from this is Frank Warren. So it's interesting to see that a channel called "boxnation" has popped up on Sky showing old Warren cards... :?: